Orgasm In Journal Form-A James Thread

[James]

I had a journal once. It was a barren wasteland with a few short reviews about bands I like, it wasn't very good and I deleted it because I was working on an albums list. I am still working on that album list but what is the harm in having a journal too? So I made this new one and it shall be amazing and much better than my last one.

I'll try and do a little variety of posts, album reviews, special tribute posts to artists and general thoughts on life. I hope people read it, I haven't posted a lot on here recently what with exams and ****loads of snow restricting my internet access. I've missed it

So guys get ready, strap up and get ready for the high octane thrill ride that is Orgasm In Journal Form! First review up within the hour!

[Bulldog]

Originally Posted by James

So guys get ready, strap up and get ready for the high octane thrill ride that is Orgasm In Journal Form! First review up within the hour!

That's one hell of a long hour

Looking forward to seeing how this one pans out Jim.

[James]

Originally Posted by Bulldog

That's one hell of a long hour

Looking forward to seeing how this one pans out Jim.

Sorry guys, my internet has been really messed up. Because of the snow my town is like cut off from civilisation. I'll hopefully get it done today.

[James]

Pig Destroyer-Prowler In The Yard

That just may be the worst album artwork in existence. Packed full with cliches about Heavy Metal artwork and overall just unpleasant to look at. But for your own sake do not let that put you off this album. "Grindcore? Wtf is Grindcore? That sounds stupid" I used to say, even the name sounded like something awful that was only admired by frat-boys, scene kids or extreme metalheads. I put this past me and checked out Napalm Death's Scum. It was a good album, started off great but dragged on towards the end, so I didn't pay it much attention. I hadn't heard much about anyother Grindcore artists. Then while lurking someone's Last Fm. a few months ago, I noticed they had a lot of plays from Pig Destroyer, I had nothing better to do so I downloaded Prowler In The Yard and Phantom Limb.

As Prowler In The Yard began there's a Stephen Hawking style computer voice. The first thing that struck me about this was the complexity and beauty of the lyrics for a Grindcore release, especially one with such cheesy artwork and band name. This was my first clue that this was more than your average Grindcore. The Jennifer lyrics are below.

"Jennifer wrestled her friend playfully to the ground
in front of the snowcone stand and began licking at the
girls eyeballs, as if they were sugar cubes.
Their bodies convulsed and flailed with an almost seizure
like intensity.
At times their pale limbs seeming to shift back and forth
from one torso to the other.
A crowd gathered almost immediately to watch these two
girls tie and untie their bodies like a pair of pit-vipers.
They were confused, or concerned, or
shocked, or aroused, or all of the above.
But no-one dared interfere with the performance.
Jennifer's long ashen hair hung down concealing the girls face
like a curtain around a hospital bed.
No one had any idea that the girls eyes were revolving
under her ruby tongue.
"This is disgusting, it's pornography"
exclaimed a pasty slut white woman in a fur coat,
vanilla ice-cream smeared across her double chin like a money shot.
Counting a balding professor type in his
mid-forties, his left hand stuffed crassly down the
front of his pants "No, no, no. This is beautiful,
this is art.""

I mean come on, they'e some of the best lyrics I've ever heard. Intense, creative, original and honest lyrics. The lyrics here are an effective comparison for the release itself. Some may find this music disgusting, ugly and monstrous, but for others it is beauty, it is art and it is fascinating. The album only gets better from here, it's a rare example of an album which is very backloaded and increases in quality all the way through. One of the interesting things about Pig Destroyer is the absence of bass on their albums. While I find the bass to be my favourite instrument and I even play it I must say this works in favour to Pig Destroyer's overall sounds. It makes their music seem more chaotic, intense and dare I use a cliche, brutal.

Pig Destroyer throughout the next 15 or so tracks really changed my opinion on Grindcore. Rivetingly fast and crazy tracks that are fun but have deep, emotional and honest lyrics to follow that up. But once you reach the end of the album, that is where your mind is truly blown, the last two tracks are some of the most intense, building and all around awesome songs i've ever heard, from any genre. It's with these two tracks that Pig Destroyer surpassed the cheesy name, genre and artwork and became an admirable group of musicians that I would visit time and time again. The short and sweet Junkyard God with some of the heaviest drumming you will hear followed by the long and brooding Piss Angel . Piss Angel just seems to grow and grow and get better and better, they mind bending guitar riff crawling into your ears and massaging them with the talent and creativety of Pig Destroyer . For me this song is their magnum opus.

In retrospect Pig Destroyer are a band which surpass the grindcore genre(one genre which I certainly don't like the execution of, or the name) and create fascinating and interesting fast paced heavy music, with genuinely well thought out lyrics(rare for this type of music) to fall back on. I would certainly recommend.

8/10

[ThePhanastasio]

Top notch review, James!

I may actually check the album out - my cousin definitely owns a copy and is good about lending CDs to me for ripping.

The style and feel of those lyrics remind me a great deal of Bukowski's poetry. Not a bad thing at all, imo!

[James]

Originally Posted by ThePhanastasio

Top notch review, James!

I may actually check the album out - my cousin definitely owns a copy and is good about lending CDs to me for ripping.

The style and feel of those lyrics remind me a great deal of Bukowski's poetry. Not a bad thing at all, imo!

Thanks! If you decide to check it out tell me how you felt. And I understand the Bukowski comparison, certainly a good thing.

[RVCA]

Oh man, this thread makes ma balls all tingly

[+81]

Nice review, James. I love that album but yes, the artwork is definitely bad.

[storymilo]

Ooh, this should be good. I enjoyed your review James, though I'm pretty sure Grindcore's not my thing. Looking forward to more.

[James]

2010-A Year In Music And A Year In Life

2010, in many ways has been the worst year of my life. Never before have so many things went wrong, one after the other and often I felt like I was being crushed by my emotions. However, when things were getting to tough and I felt there was nobody to turn to, music was there for me and could make me feel better. In early Spring when my mum had a heart attack and I stayed at my sister's house for a while, the radiant tones and soothing heart tones of Joanna Newsom were there to calm me down and stop my worry. During summer, my laziness finally took it's toll as I failed my english exam and didn't make it into higher, but the beautiful lyrics and wonderful piano music of The National's High Violet helped to reassure me that it wasn't the end of the world. Then through into the colder months, when my friends disappeared one by one like the leaves on the trees, the relationship between me and my mother deteriorated and I felt like I was alone in the world, the music of Kanye West, Agalloch, Deerhunter and Envy comforted me in the fact that somewhere out there were people like me, who can appreciate the same things such as the wonderful music on my iPod.

2010 has been a big year for music, not just for me but for the whole world. Many musical legends have passed away, leaving hundreds of fans upset or even in tears. The loss of Alex Chilton especially affected me, I consider Big Star to be the best band to come out of America and the crafters of the best type of Pop music. He was a real tortured soul and it's fascinating how he could write both upbeat pop classics like September Gurls as well as heart wrenching dark classics like Holocaust and Nightime.

Jay Reatard is also one of my favourite musicians now and I'm really disappointed that I didn't really discover him until his death, he knew how to have fun while making music in a time when a lot of bands take themselves far to serious. Blood Visions may even be a five star album from me, it's just full of pop anthems.

Mark Linkous or Sparklehorse was another sad loss and another great troubled musician lost to suicide. His brand of mellow, emotional songs are masterful with his song Piano Fire being one of my favourite collaborations of all time and Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot maybe even being my favourite acoustic indie type album. The song Cow somehow manages to go on for over seven minutes without changing an awful lot, but still leaves you hanging on for more.



Some other musicians who are sadly missed:Ronnie James Dio was of course an icon, I admire his work with Rainbow, Black Sabbath and his solo stuff, especially Holy Diver. I didn't listen to Dio much, but he has my respect, and I cannot deny that his music is of a high quality. Eyedea and Nujabes are other artists I was sad to here about dying but didn't listen to much in their lifetime, after their deaths I revisited their work and now I see them for what they were, immensely talented rappers who were one in a million. Ari Up from The Slits was a great frontwoman and Cut is one of the most unique and interesting albums from the early punk bands. Peter Christopherson from Coil and Throbbing Gristle is another sad loss, the man made some of the greatest experimental music around. If I have forgotten any other fantastic musician I'm sorry, I had to rely on memory.

As for the big releases of 2010 there have been plenty of brilliant and important releases. I will cover some of the big, well known releases now and cover others in my future entries "Hidden Gems of 2010".


Kanye West probably released the biggest album of 2010 with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, a unique take on Hip-Hop with a sound we'll come to hear a lot of in the next few years. Runaway may be the best song I've heard all year, Kanye West is realising his bad behaviour and a tinge of regret can be heard. The long tracks and incredibly complicated production works perfectly with the album and more and more hip-hop artists will be seen putting longer tracks into their albums and maybe even releasing them as singles like with the aforementioned Runaway.

Agalloch's Marrow of the Spirit is another big album from 2010. Agalloch have probably been the most consistent Metal band of the 00s, with this release they showed they still had the talent, changed their sound slightly and released in my opinion their best album yet. The album is compellingly atmospheric and it's perfect for lying down and reading to.

Joanna Newsom is the most interesting artist of the 00s and with Have One On Me she released her biggest album yet. The triple album lacks some of the charm of my personal favourite The Milk Eyed Mender or the fairytale, whick you away element of Ys but it's still fantastic and is a lot more mature than her other albums. It's bursting with high quality songs especially '81 which would be in my top five Joanna Newsom songs. Her harp playing is better than ever, the harp is infamously hard to play and it's great how she seems to play the harp so perfectly while singing in her trademark high pitched beautiful style.

The National are my favourite "Indie Rock" band by far. Alligator is a five star album from me. Matt Berninger's deep voice can carry such emotion through his almost perfect lyrics. High Violet is a great album and it seems to have finally got The National the praise they deserve. I attempted to buy tickets to see The National last month but they were sold out, this in my opinion shows that their brilliance has finally been realised. England is one of the most beautiful songs they've ever written, at just over five minutes it leaves me in absolute awe.

Other important mainstream releases this year have been; Pink Friday by Nicki Minaj is packed full of catchy pop songs, even the inclusion of Will.i.am on Check It Out can't ruin it's potential as a catchy pop classic. Nicki Minaj has a really unique and interesting personality and take on music. Janelle Monae released her debut album The ArchAndroid, personally the best and most experimental RnB album I've ever heard. Deerhunter released Halycon Digest, their most straightforward release yet but still enjoyable. Swans came out with their first album in a long time showing that after 30 years, they are still a force to be reckoned with.


I've missed a few, but I don't want to just list every big release, that would be mundane. I've came to the conclusion that 2010 is the best year in music so far. When you think about it music just gets better by the year, with new genres and movements forming constantly. Never before now has there been such a large amount of genres on offer, and in 2011 there will be even more. Sure you can have a favourite year, if some favourites of yours were released then but you can't truly argue that said year had more to offer than the present.





Coming Next:Five Hidden Gems of 2010